Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Spider-Man, Luke Skywalker and Homer Simpson will soon find themselves with a new cultural currency: TikTok fame.
The social media giant and The Walt Disney Company on Wednesday announced they had struck a “first-of-its-kind” content-sharing deal that will allow TikTok creators to use Disney-owned characters, stories and scenes from its films and TV shows in short-form videos.
As part of the deal, TikTok will offer its creators access to a trove of content from Disney’s brands, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, FX and more.
Videos will appear on both TikTok and Disney+’s Verts platform, which is designed to draw younger audiences who regularly consume short-form vertical video content on cellphones. The agreement will mark the first time TikTok videos have appeared on another platform.
A pilot program will launch in “the coming months,” the companies said, with plans to expand it to additional markets.
The companies also said the arrangement will “enable best-in-class creators to unlock special rewards” as well as broader exposure and access to exclusive events and career opportunities.
“Creators are at the heart of everything we do at TikTok. Their creativity extends the life of films and shows into conversations that fans discover and share,” Dawn Yang, TikTok’s global head of entertainment, said in a statement. “Together with Disney, we’re bringing the authentic creator expression of the TikTok community to Disney+, inviting audiences to experience the shared creativity that makes fandom so powerful.”
The arrangement closely mirrors last year’s $1 billion short-lived agreement to offer Open AI’s generative AI video platform, Sora, access to Disney’s extensive catalog of characters and other content.
Months later, after facing controversy in Hollywood and other challenges, Open AI abruptly shut down Sora and the deal collapsed.
Now, Disney is making another attempt to establish a foothold in the world of viral, vertical content creation. With an average of 6.5 million film- and TV-related TikTok posts each day last year, the company is betting on a platform that has become a major driver of entertainment conversation.
“The best storytellers are fans first,” Asad Ayaz, Disney’s chief marketing and brand officer, said in a statement. “That has always been true at Disney, and today, fans are celebrating our stories in entirely new ways. This collaboration creates a new bridge between the stories we tell and the creativity they inspire, giving creators a bigger stage to share what they’ve made, and audiences more to discover on Disney+ every day.”